Wish You Well by David Baldacci

This book is a bit of a departure from the books of Baldacci’s that I have read previously. It’s not a murder mystery – even though people do die. There is no main character aiming to take down the government conspiracy – even though there is a big bad business causing trouble. In some ways the main components of his other works are there – just put forth in a different manner. It’s an enjoyable book, with many insights into life in the Appalachians, and a good commentary on what is really important in life. (Hint: it’s not money.)

Publisher’s summary:This is the story of Louisa May Cardinal, a precocious 12-year-old girl living in the hectic New York City of 1940 with her acclaimed but sadly underpaid writer father, her compassionate mother, and her timid younger brother, Oz. For Lou, her family’s financial struggles are invisible. Instead, she is a daughter who idolizes her father and is in love with the art of storytelling.

Then, in a single, terrifying moment, Lou’s life is changed forever, and she and Oz are on a train rolling away from New York and down into the mountains of Virginia. There, Lou’s mother will begin a long, slow struggle between life and death. And there, Lou and Oz will be raised by their remarkable great-grandmother, Louisa, Lou’s namesake.

Suddenly this young girl finds herself coming of age in a landscape that could not be more foreign to her. On her great-grandmother’s farm, on the land her father loved and wrote about, Lou finds her first true friend; learns lessons in loyalty, tragedy, and redemption; and experiences adventures tragic, comic, and audacious. When a dark, destructive force encroaches on their new home, Lou and her brother are caught up in another struggle – a struggle for justice and survival that will be played out in a crowded Virginia courtroom.